for mr. romney it's 206. so the election will come down to the nine swing states that could go either way. bob schieffer is our chief washington correspondent and anchor of "face the nation" and, bob, what do you make of how close it is in the swing states? >> well, it started out close and it is even closer now. scott, i kind of took a survey of our pollsters. they can not recall a time when these battleground states are closer than they are right now with the possible exception of ohio where the president has a teeny lead. all of these states are in the margin of error. what that means is there are eight battleground states out there that either of these candidates could win. it's just going to come down to who gets their voters to the polls. it's going to be all about turnout. this race is an absolute dead heat from everything that we have that we can measure it by. >> pelley: bob, thanks very much. bob will have the latest on the campaign and the aftermath of the storm this sunday on "face the nation." th